Causes of disease

February 25, 2020

Identifying the causes of diseases (etiology) consists of discovering, using examinations, observation and study of the "field" of the patient, what are the imbalances causing illnesses. Most of the time, we try to circumscribe the causes by qualifying the types imbalances (Void, Excess, Stagnation, Cold, Heat, Wind, etc.), and determining which viscera or what functions they mainly affect. 

For example, we say that a person suffering from a cold is victim of a Wind, because this damage is often done during a climate change accompanied wind or by exposure to a draft. The Wind also symbolizes power of the air which transports and penetrates a pathogenic factor. We will then speak of external wind. It is also said of a person who suffers of random tremors, that she is suffering from an Internal Wind because her symptoms have the appearance of what the wind causes: gusts, leaf tremor, etc. The wind is therefore an image that serves as a point of concrete and analogical start to designate a specific set of pathological symptoms, and which serves to classify them in a category or to associate them with a clinical portrait. These images can be refined more and more: we will speak of an external or internal Wind, of a direct attack of Wind, of a Wind-Heat which attacks the Lung or from a Wind-Moisture that enters a Meridian, each expression designating realities very specific. 

Of course, when we say that a disease is caused by a Fire liver, it does not mean that the Liver is physically warmer, but that it is overly active, it takes up too much space, it "overheats". And when TCM identifies a cause as an Internal Cold, it’s because symptoms are similar to those caused by a real cold that would have entered the body (slowing, thickening, congestion, solidification, etc.). 

The identification of the causes of diseases allows among other things the most appropriate interventions. For example, if TCM concludes that the cause of a disease is a Wind-Cold located in the Lung, this will allow to choose treatments that will help disperse the Wind and bring more qi in the Lung (to fight against the Cold), which, in the end, will bring the healing. It also gives the patient a chance, knowing the origin of his illness or imbalance, to make the necessary changes in his lifestyle to avoid relapse and to prevent other health problems.

This approach is very different from the Western medical approach, who will consider, for example, that the cause of sinusitis is the presence pathogenic bacteria; so she will use an antibiotic (or a natural product like eucalyptus) to attack and destroy the bacteria in question. TCM considers rather than the cause of the disease is, for example, a Wind-Cold in the Lung or a Liver Fire, that is to say a weakness of the system, a vulnerability momentary which allowed, in these particular circumstances, to the disease to settle (whether by leaving the field open to bacteria or otherwise). TCM will therefore seek to strengthen the immune system and the whole organism so that it regains the strength to get rid of itself sinusitis (and bacteria he no longer had the ability to to fight previously). 

TCM divides the causes of diseases into three categories: external, internal and others. Each is presented in more detail to following levels. 

  • The causes external (WaiYin) are linked to climatic factors like the heat, Drought, Humidity, the wind, etc.

  • The causes internal (NeiYin) come mainly from an imbalance emotions.

  • The other causes (Bu Nei Bu WaiYin) are trauma, poor diet, overwork, weak constitution and sexual excess.